(Written by Intern, Alecia Wilk)
Opposing the drivel of half-headlines social media usually delivers, Bob Trevino Likes It offers a touching sliver of both hope and heartbreak. Tracie Laymon makes her debut as a writer and director to bring to life a different kind of soulmate story, inspired by the true events of her life. Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira) is an adult child to an immature parent. Her father, Robert (French Stewart), is emotionally absent, irresponsible, and completely unreliable. After a father-daughter fallout leaves Lily desperate to make contact, she finds a friendship to heal years of paternal heartbreak in an unlikely place.
Bob Trevino Likes It tackles tragedy while doing its best to find something to smile about. Lily is characterized mostly by her kindheartedness despite mistreatment. In one scene, she speaks to her therapist like she is catching up with a friend, and spills on and on in a chipper tone about her traumatic childhood. Relying on victimhood as a foundation for a young female character’s relatability is a tired play, but Barbie Ferreira does well to exhibit a complex mix of emotions. Keeping an earnest lightness in her performance helps Lily feel real even while the story’s perspective stays very rose-colored. Something in Ferreira’s rasp and mannerisms perfectly registers Lily’s self-sacrificing nature. So when her flake of a dad finally meets up with her just to ask that she wingman for him, it is understandable that she would oblige. With her luck, it is also fathomable when her mission to make him look good on the date goes quickly south, and Robert leaves her stranded outside the shabby taco spot and goes ghost. Seeing these lash outs and pity parties hosted in parking lots feels true to life, and the setting is often good at grounding such comedic slaps in the face. Irrational reactions and silly mishaps Lily is meant to navigate are punctuated by lonesome rides on the city bus or shuffles across cracking asphalt.
Using dramedy elements, Tracie Laymon represents isolation in the modern world as a breeding ground for connection. While Lily’s dad can swipe through the internet looking for silver-haired honeys, Lily takes to Facebook to try and pull him back from his no-contact stunt. After “friending” a case of mistaken identity, she ends up finding a new dad in another Bob Trevino (John Leguizamo). Suddenly, the interchangeability of people in the digital age gains an encouraging spin. Over likes, comments, and Facebook messenger, sentimental voice overs from Bob and Lily give a play-by-play as their by-chance connection transforms into something far more significant. Waiting for pings from their respective devices, Bob Trevino Likes It depicts the anxiety of talking to strangers on the internet with a newfound innocence. Their correspondence takes the phenomenon of posting to the void, and the dopamine feedback loop and turns it into something sweeter. Lily and Bob’s relationship progresses with a series of wholesome exchanges that are near-montaged. Aligned perfectly to one another’s healing needs, such cliches are permitted only by the fact that these are two souls everyone wants to be happy for.
Semi-autobiographical and almost too good to be true, Bob Trevino Likes It tends towards Hallmark in terms of its style. Developing its central relationship with a forceful optimism, much of its runtime is textbook feel-good. However, the bond between Lily and Bob Trevino comes with a punch of devastation, and is sure to bring tears to the tender-hearted.
Can you choose your family? Find out when Bob Trevino Likes It hits theatres on Friday, March 21st.
